Israel Sits with Arabs in Moscow, but Palestinians Stay on Sidelines

A highly visible quarrel over Palestinian representation at the conference on Middle East regional issues that opened here Tuesday failed to obscure the historical significance of the occasion.

For the first time since its founding, the Jewish state was an acknowledged participant in an international conclave on the Middle East that included, among its 22 delegations, representatives of many Arab countries still technically in a state of war with Israel and which until recently counted themselves among its most implacable foes.

Israeli negotiators met with representatives of some of the same Arab states when the Middle East peace conference was formally launched in Madrid last Oct. 30.

But that gathering, and the two subsequent rounds of talks in Washington, were devoted strictly to bilateral issues.

The conference that opened Tuesday in the Russian capital’s ornate Hall of Unions is of far broader scope. It was called to address problems that concern every nation in the Middle East, such as arms control, water resources, environmental protection, economic development and refugee resettlement.

The Arabs, by joining with Israel in discussions of these problems and their possible solutions, are finally acknowledging that Israel indeed is part of their region, with a permanent stake in its well-being and development.

BANTERING WITH GULF DELEGATES

In Madrid, an atmosphere of sterility prevailed in the conference room and the corridors, as Arabs rebuffed Israeli gestures of civility.

In Moscow, by contrast, Israelis were soon exchanging friendly banter with kaffiyeh-robed delegates from Qatar and Oman. They also engaged in long discussions with Jordanians, away from prying news cameras.

Israeli sources analyzing the day said they were fairly pleased with the tone and tenor of most of the Arab addresses.

While every speech contained a pro forma demand for Israel’s total withdrawal from the administered territories and many dealt with the issues of Jerusalem and the settlements, every Arab minister stressed the need for a peaceful resolution of all of these problems.

The United States and Russia came down on the side of Israel to block an attempt by the Palestinians to bring representatives of the “Palestinian diaspora” and East Jerusalem into the deliberations.

That would be a violation of the peace conference ground rules, worked out in months of negotiations last summer between U.S. Secretary of State James Baker and Israeli officials.

Israel refused to attend any conference that included Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem or areas outside the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy, who heads the Israeli delegation, pointed out that Baker himself had stressed to the conference that no progress was possible unless it was based on the agreement of all the parties.

“We have said no (to diaspora participation), and something to which we do not agree will not transpire,” Levy declared.

But Baker said he and his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyarev, would support the participation of diaspora Palestinians in two of the five working groups that the conference was scheduled to set up Wednesday.

LITTLE SYMPATHY FOR PALESTINIANS

Israel remained firmly opposed. Israel would participate in a working group on refugees, Levy said, but only as long as no diaspora Palestinians or East Jerusalem residents attended.

The working group on refugees, a late addition to the list intended to mollify the Palestinians, will be chaired by Canada.

The dispute over Palestinian representation continued through Monday night and ended only half an hour before the conference was scheduled to start.

“The Palestinians haven’t done themselves any favors today,” observed Jason Isaacson, director of government and international affairs for the American Jewish Committee, who came here to observer the talks.

“My impression is that the international sympathy for their cause has been eroded by this repeated last-minute insistence on changing the rules of the game,” he said.

Baker and Kozyarev finally gave up their efforts to persuade Faisal Husseini, the unofficial Palestinian leader who lives in East Jerusalem, to field a Palestinian delegation consisting only of residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Husseini, who is advised here by two senior Palestine Liberation Organization officials, Yasir Abed Rabbo and Suleiman a-Najar, insisted that the Madrid rules limiting the Palestinians to West Bank and Gaza Strip residents should not apply to the multilateral talks.

Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi, another East Jerusalemite, announced at a news conference Tuesday that the Palestinians would “consider positively” the American proposal that the diaspora Palestinians participate in certain of the working groups.

But she insisted that they also be allowed to attend the second day of the conference Wednesday, when the working groups were to be established.

TOUGH SPEECH BY JAPANESE

Baker wound up the first day of the conference by making clear that the United States would not countenance “changing the (Madrid) rules at the last moment.”

His implication was that the United States favors diaspora Palestinians in subsequent working groups but not in Moscow.

The talks are being led by a nine-nation steering committee that includes the United States, Russia, the European Community, Japan, Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and a representative of the Maghreb countries: Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

The 12-member E.C. is represented at the conference by Portuguese Foreign Minister, Joao de Deus Pinheiro, who currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the E.C. Council of Ministers, and Abel Matutes, the European commissioner in charge of Mediterranean affairs.

Matutes has already made proposals for E.C. financing of development projects in the Middle East contingent on successful Israeli-Arab peace negotiations.

While Wednesday’s session of the conference was to hammer together the various working groups and establish when they will meet, the opening session Tuesday was devoted to speeches.

The Israelis were taken aback by the vehemence of Japanese Foreign Minister Michio Watanabe’s condemnation Tuesday of Israeli settlement-building in the territories. But they were encouraged by the Japanese and the European Community’s professed readiness to engage actively in promoting regional cooperation.

Watanabe held a one-hour meeting Monday with Levy. According to Japanese spokesman Seiji Morimoto, Watanabe told Levy that the Japanese government “will work closely with the private sector to suspend the so-called Arab boycott” against Israel.

According to Israeli sources, much of the session focused on Israel’s request for El Al landing rights in Tokyo. Levy complained that the Israelis had been waiting for a whole year for such rights to be granted.

Levy also met with the Turkish and Russian foreign ministers and was due to meet Wednesday morning with Baker. He was also scheduled to meet Wednesday with former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.